NXT 535

November 20, 2019 – Winter Park, Florida 

Triple H closed Raw by inviting anyone from Raw or Smcackdoen to show up, so NXT General Manager William Regal escorts Becky Lynch to the ring for a chat. I dunno, maybe I’m crazy, but The Man gimmick feels inauthentic to me. It didn’t used to, but I haven’t seen her cut a promo in a while and it feels like she’s doing a Peter Quill deepening his voice in front of Thor thing. She calls out Shayna Baszler, but Rhea Ripley answers instead. She wants to see if The Man has balls.

Becky Lynch nc. Rhea Ripley
This was going along just fine (though there were a pair of moments when Ripley looked blown up) when the political problem with an episode like this taking place before a pair of big specials rears its head as the Horsewomen ran out and spoiled the match at 5:52 (shown). Ripley & Lynch them off despite being outnumbered. **¾ 

Matt Riddle def. Ricochet
Ricochet took out Kona Reeves to take his place in this match, so his babyface status is well in tact. Just like the last match, this was fun until interference became a necessity when Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura game oot to spoil the party. The distraction gave Riddle a roll up win at 3:45, Roderick Strong ran out to fight off Nakamura, and the Finn Balor ran our to attack Riddle. Riddle came out on top there. **½ 

They announce Pete Dunne vs. Damian Priest vs. Killian Dain at Takeover for a title shot the next night at Survivor Series. There’s a nice three way symmetry to the Survivor Series cars but I just don’t have a lot of faith that the show will be any good.

Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish def. Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson
It was jarring to see the Revival work babyface here, both because they were the outsiders and also because they were always heels in NXT. Wilder took a hell of a beating in the first half of the match. Then things really turned up, as the Revival decided that pulling from the playbooks of other teams would get them the win. They hit Meet Me In The Middle, but O’Reilly saves the legal Fish and took the move. They hit the Powerplex, but Fish kicked out. They went for the Doomsday Device, but Fish saw it coming. From there, the tag champs’ momentum couldn’t be stopped, and eventually Wilder got wrecked on the outside and Dawson eventually fell to Total Elimination at 17:59 (shown). They fully did the thing here. ****¼ 

Kay Lee Ray def. Dakota Kai
It would be reasonable to assume that there are more eyes than usual on this show tonight, so why not get in a plug for NXT UK? I do think it’d be more interesting to have KLR fight Tegan Nox rather than Kai, since Nox will actually be in the WarJanes match on Saturday. That said, the story of Kai having something to prove is a solid one. The crowd was totally blown up after the last match and didn’t have anything to give here. Kai put up a good fight, but KLR was the better wrestler. This was fine, but flat because of the dead crow. KLR hit the Gory Bomb for the win at 5:37. After the match, the Raw and Smackdown women’s rosters attack. A Kairi Sane vs. Io Shirai fight is teased, but then Jesus Cross clears the ring with a trash can lid. **¼ 

Erik & Ivar def. Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler
If NXT has one fault, it’s that they haven’t built up any new tag teams in 2019. So it’s good that the Forgotten Sons got a better showing than most of the Viking Raiders’ Raw opponents usually get. It was a smart move to have Jaxson Ryker be a big part of the Sons being able to compete. The Raiders hit the Viking Experience on Blake at 8:46 (shown) for the win. Surprisingly competitive and fun match there! It got a little silly down the stretch, but I’m okay with it. ***¼ 

Adam Cole def. Dominik Dijakovic {Ladder Match}
It’s too bad that the Undisputed Era doesn’t have a monster on its team, because that’s the only way you could believably have the WarJames babyfaces have the order advantage, and the only way the result here would have been in question. Mauro Ranallo taught me the word deleterious here, and that’s a good one. I dug this because it felt like they were always going for the briefcase, and that the spots (which were dope) were secondary to winning. It was just a little short. Cole won desperately at 8:02 (shown). ***½ 

After the match, the Era came out to celebrate, only to be boxed in by Raw and Smackdown wrestlers. That turned into another big boring brawl. In the ring, Drew McIntyre took out Dijakovic. Keith Lee took out McIntyre. Lee and Ivar dove onto everyone. Then, Seth Rollins superkicked Cole. Tommaso Ciampa came out to stare down Rollins and kick off Cole’s head. Rollins and Ciampa fight as the show goes off the air. Umm, we still don’t know who is on either Team NXT at Survivor Series or who is the fourth on Ciampa’s team at Takeover.